The weather in England has been weird. I got a little burnt sunbathing in February. The snowman in the garden had recently melted. Meanwhile, the news is full of climate change and ecological collapse ... But when I sit down in the evening and flick on the telly, browse the cinema listings, or put on some music, I don’t find the biggest story on earth ... ....

A new report published on Thursday in the New York Times said the doomed Boeing jets which crashed in Indonesia and Ethiopia both lacked two safety features in the cockpits because the company charged extra to install them ...Faulty data from sensors on the Lion Air plane could have caused that system, called MCAS, to malfunction ... Fehrm told the NYT....

Dubai found itself entangled in the sex abuse case against American R&B singer R. Kelly on Thursday after the performer asked a U.S. judge to allow him to come to the Arabian Peninsula sheikhdom to perform shows and “meet with the royal family.” ... and the UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms ... Kelly was charged on Feb ... RELATED R ... The R ... ....

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan security forces detained a key aide to opposition leader Juan Guaido in a raid on his home early Thursday, an opposition lawmaker said. Lawyer RobertoMarrero was taken by intelligence agents in the overnight operation in Caracas, said lawmaker Sergio Vergara, whose nearby residence was also searched ...The U.S ... ....

SAN FRANCISCO&nbsp;(AP) - Facebook said Thursday that it stored millions of its users' passwords in plain text for years. The acknowledgement from the social media giant came after a security researcher posted about the issue online ... Facebook said there is no evidence its employees abused access to this data ... ___ ... ....

"We need to see Pakistan taking concrete and sustained action to reign in the terrorist groups, mainly the Jaish-e-Mohammed and the Lashkar-e-Taiba in order to ensure that we don't have re-escalation (of tension) in the region," a senior administration official told reporters at the White House....

Five mosques in Birmingham in the West Midlands in the United Kingdom had their windows smashes with a sledgehammer on Thursday morning, according to local police. Deutsche Welle said authorities believe the attacks are likely linked and counter-terrorism police have launched their own investigation into the incidents ... ... ... -WN.com, Maureen Foody....

House Oversight and Reform Committee chairman Rep.Elijah Cummings sent a letter to the White House on Thursday which raised concerns about newly revealed information from last December over Jared Kushner using encrypted messaging service WhatsApp and his personal email account to conduct official White House business, according to Politico....

London (CNN)Facebook acknowledges its systems failed to catch the livestream video of the New Zealand mosque attack, shedding new light on how the company became aware of the video ... The shooter livestreamed 17 minutes of the horrific attack -- which left 50 people dead -- on Facebook ... Read More ... ....

More than 1,000 people protested outside the Hungarian Academy of Science on Thursday to protest Prime MinisterViktor Orban's attempts to overhaul the institution which scientists and academics argue is a threat to their independence, according to Reuters ... "Yet, our nearly 200-year-old national institution is left fighting for its survival.”....

China’s shortage of women is causing young women to be trafficked into the country from Myanmar as brides and raped until they become pregnant, a harrowing new report has found. The Human Rights Watch report, called "Give Us a Baby and We’ll Let You Go... We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view ... Subscribe now ... China cancels Christmas ... 1/7 ... ....

The UK will be heading for a no-deal Brexit if MPs reject Theresa May’s deal next week, EU leaders have warned – as they arrived at a summit in Brussels to discuss an extension to Article 50 ... "We have to be clear ... ....